I did a ramen project with a friend. He made the broth and it was good but not quite great. I made the noodles and we all agreed that for a little extra effort, the homemade noodles made a big difference.

Edit, not to imply I did my job any better. The broth was a much bigger undertaking and took way more work than what I did. I imagine there is also a bigger learning curve for the broth than for the noodles.

From everything I read, a proper alkaline solution is essential for getting the toothiness of the noodles. I used potassium carbonate. The recipe only calls for a tablespoon or two and now the nearly-full bottle lives in my pantry, staring at me until I make ramen noodles again.

If I were to make stock myself these days, I would strongly consider using a pressure cooker.

Thanks all. The hardest part was all the time spent on research and, to a lesser extent, getting certain ingredients. I wanted to buy fresh noodles, for instance, but my usual Asian haunts were out.

Since chicken is not the protein for classic ramen I also had to spend more time assembling a game plan.

Active time wasn’t so bad, maybe 1 ½-2 hours. I’ve been making chicken broth for years, even more regularly since I got a honesuki. And I’ve also made classic pho broth. I’ve got the broth-making process down pat, especially cleanup.

There are a lot of choices involved. Cut of protein. Roast meat and aromatics? Pre boil and dump? Light or dark color? Marinated or just soft-boiled eggs? Just have to make the choices and not look back.

Your eggs look perfect. My family thinks I'm weird when I sit there, stirring the eggs for two minutes to keep the yokes centred and then dump them into a bath of ice water to halt the cooking process. Have you tried shoyu marinated eggs? Adds a nice flavour to ramen.

I will often use pork shoulder, rendered a bit in a pressure cooker and then marinated and grilled to produce my ghetto version of chashu.

One of the better ramen places here in Baltimore closed down a while back, have not tried anything since.
@Ut_ron, check out Tosh's Ramen, just north of 13th south on State St. Bit of a dive but worth it if you are down that way.